The Open 2013: Old Nick has some words of wisdom for young Rory

NICK FALDO will play competitively for the first time in three years at Muirfield and has some words of advice for Rory McIlroy.

Nick Faldo: "I was part of a pretty good era. If you brought us to now, we’d beat this lot easy" (Photo: Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record)

Share

Get daily updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

OLD NICK? He can be a bit of a devil you know.

And yesterday there was a twinkle in the eye of golf’s very own old Nick as he returned to the scene of two of this three Open triumphs.

Sir Nick Faldo will play competitively for the first time in three years and is desperate to ensure his role is not ceremonial.

He will be 56 on Thursday and wants to show the young guns there is still life in the old guard.

And he will have good company on Thursday and Friday when he goes around Muirfield with Tom Watson and Fred Couples.

Faldo believes if the giants of his era had the technology and the sports science that the current generation enjoys, his lot would be better. He says so in a jocular fashion but the six-times Major winner means it all right.

Just as he meant every word of advice he administered to Rory McIlroy, who comes into this Open searching for form and a way to combine his life away from the course with success on it.

Faldo said: “Rory is still testing clubs and I think he has a lot going on in his mind. But you need 100 per cent concentration.

“The most ideal days I had were going to the club at 9am, hitting balls all day long and leaving at 5pm.

“You have to do that. That’s my only words of wisdom to Rory.

“You have, say, a 20-year window as an athlete. Concentrate on golf, nothing else. Hopefully when you retire in your 40s or 50s you have another 40 years to enjoy it.”

Faldo is only playing because it’s Muirfield and because of his history with the place. Wins in 1987 and 1992 – the last time an Englishmen lifted the Claret Jug – mean the world to a man who now lives in the US. He said: “I have a very special place here, the 18th green at Muirfield. A couple of months ago I thought: ‘You’re just strong enough to have a go.’ It might be the last chance I get to walk with fellow champions. If I’m feeling intense I’ll go and talk to Tom. If I want to feel relaxed I’ll talk to Freddie.”

Faldo is still three years younger than Watson was when he missed a putt for The 2009 Open.

The Englishman said: “It could have been the greatest sporting achievement of all time.

“I would be scarred from that if I had a putt to win The Open, even at 59. So I’m going to avoid having a putt to win. I’m either going to win by six or be stuck in the hay.”

He knows it is far more likely to be one the younger players who leave themselves a putt for The Open on Sunday night.

But Faldo said: “With Seve, Greg, Pricey, Freddie, Olazabal and Langer, I was part of a pretty good era.